Operational Efficiencies and Effectiveness

City fleet service: How many mechanics do I need to run my service facility?

The client was a municipal operator of various fleet services facilities. As part of an overall review of city fleet operations, the efficiency of fleet services facilities were evaluated.

Client's Challenge
To identify the areas having the greatest potential for measurable and actionable cost savings and/or service improvement within Fleet Services. Staff utilization was currently difficult to measure and it wasn't clear if more staff were required or not. Meanwhile the workers felt that facilities were understaffed and needed more resources.

StraNexus' Approach
The approach included focusing on one particular facility (the largest one with the most staff and supervisors). The following steps were taken:

  • A subset of the workforce was interviewed to get a better understanding of roles, responsibilities and staff issues
  • A work sampling study was conducted over a period of 3 weeks
  • Study findings were analyzed and summarized for management and staff


Results
The work sampling study identified:

  • The amount of time staff were spending on various value-added and non-value added tasks such as wrench time, travel/transportation, breaks, collecting parts, getting ready for work, communicating, meetings, etc.
  • The amount of money that the organization can save if management can improve staff utilization (wrench time) by at least 1%
  • That no additional supervisory staff were required and the current supervisors should be better utilized
  • A list of improvement opportunities (including ones suggested by current staff)

 

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